Hospital Case Management – July 1, 2023

Climate Change Could Be Newest Social Determinant of Health

Extreme heat events cause tens of thousands of hospitalizations and ED visits each year. Heat is particularly dangerous for older adults and patients with heart and lung illnesses. Case managers and hospitals can help prevent heat exhaustion by educating at-risk clients about how to stay cool and recognize symptoms.

How Case Managers Can Help Patients Reduce Heat Risk

Extreme heat events can become cluster death events. Case managers and health systems can help their patients — especially older patients with heart and/or lung disease — to prevent heat illness.

Communication in Care Transition Process Needs Improvement

The care transition process is challenging, especially for patients with multiple complex conditions. To provide the best care to high-risk patients, case managers, community providers, and clinicians need to optimize communication. Case managers can improve the process through quality improvement efforts that focus on overcoming dialogue challenges and identifying providers’ communication preferences.

Care Coordination Training Works Well for VA Hospitals

One of the challenges facing health systems as patients are moved from the hospital to another healthcare facility is how to make these transitions as safe as possible — especially in rural and underserved areas. A Veterans Affairs hospital has found a possible solution through its Transitions Nurse Training Program.

A Guide to Training Nurses on Transitional Care

It is challenging to find a tailor-made educational and training program for registered nurses to learn transitional care. A VA hospital created its own program, called the Transitions Nurse Training Program.

Care Collaboration Helps Patients with At-Risk Heart Failure Illness

Researchers found social support and care affordability are important to obtain better outcomes among patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction.

Remote Facilities Can Avoid Unnecessary Pediatric Transfers by Leveraging Telemedicine

When critically ill children present to EDs in rural or community hospitals that lack access to specialty pediatric care, the solution often is to transfer them to a regional pediatric facility, which could be hours away from a patient’s home. This creates travel burdens and added expense for families and payors. But new research suggests that at least some of these interfacility transfers can be safely avoided by incorporating telemedicine consultations with pediatric specialists.

ET3 Pilot Hailed as Big Step Toward Fully Leveraging EMS

In January 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched a five-year pilot program called Emergency Triage, Treat, and Transport (ET3), an approach that enables participating EMS programs to connect some patients with lower-acuity problems to emergency providers via telemedicine at the scene. Most participants are excited about leveraging the approach to accelerate needed care to patients, decompress EDs, and maximize the skills of the EMS workforce.